


By Design

by Nicxan



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Gen, My Phone Guy Is Happy For Once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24966670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicxan/pseuds/Nicxan
Summary: Eric is given the task of looking over the new pizzeria menu design.
Kudos: 21
Collections: Banned Together Bingo 2020





	By Design

**Author's Note:**

> [Banned Together Bingo](https://bannedtogetherbingo2020.tumblr.com/)!  
> This prompt was 'Poor Grammar'. This was a nice, chill fic to unwind with. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Uh, of course! I mean, yeah, I can handle this. Just give me a couple of hours? I know you have a lot to do, so, uh ... don’t worry about it! I mean, not like I’m doing anything else right now ...”  
  
Eric’s answer to his very simple question had been very, very long winded. Christ, he was still going. Did he have a moment -- no, still talking.   
  
William simply smiled painfully through the whole rambling mess, clutching the prototype of the new menu design in his worn, calloused hands. It was like pulling teeth when he had to ask Eric for a favor and he hated every second of it. All he could do was wait for an opening to speak. If he tried beforehand, Eric would stumble into a just-as-rambly apology.   
  
William had no time for that today.   
  
The second Eric took a breath, William didn’t take any chances. “Thank you,” he quickly said, cutting off the store manager. “I have a lot to do with the animatronics in this location today, so I appreciate you looking it over. Just look at the design, see if it seems appealing, and let me know if there’s anything that sticks out to you.”   
  
William set down the menu on the desk, gently brushing his fingers against Eric’s as he moved to leave. He smirked to himself at Eric’s beet red face, but didn’t acknowledge it otherwise.   
  
He wasn’t lying when he said he had plenty to do. Some of the animatronics were old and worn and needed a tune-up, then with the mechanic out today, he’d have to take some time to check that everything was working with the voice boxes and the instruments, never mind getting someone to polish them up to make them look nice ...   
  
He had just gathered his tools backstage when he heard hysterical laughter coming from the manager’s office. William furrowed his brow in confusion, then set his jaw irritably. What was so funny that Eric couldn’t help but disrupt the state of things? There were still customers here, even if it was slow. This was unprofessional.   
  
William knocked on the door. As soon as he did, the hysterical laughter died down into frantic giggle fits. Then, Eric cleared his throat. The fact that it took that much to calm him down made William slightly nervous.   
  
“Is there a reason you’re laughing this hard?” William asked as he stepped into the office again. He saw Eric leaning on the desk, desperately clutching to the menu in one hand, cackling like a madman. Were those tears in his eyes? “Eric?”   
  
“I’m -- oh no, I’m so sorry, it’s just -- just --” Eric forced himself to sit up and he waved the menu. “There’s just -- so much wrong with this, I, uh ... I don’t know where to start.”   
  
“Give me that.”   
  
William stormed over and grabbed the menu, scanning it with a now-critical eye.   
  
His eyes bugged out at the utter mess of a menu it turned out to be. Why had he never looked at it before?! The design itself was cluttered and hardly appealing to the eye, the colors were horrid, but the worst were the massive amounts of typos.   
  
“ _Peeperooni_? It’s supposed to say pepperoni!” William spat. Eric once again burst into a hysterical fit of cackling, leaning back in his office chair. “And it’s ‘five meat’, not ‘five _meet_ ’! What are they thinking --”   
  
“And -- and --” Eric coughed, interrupting himself. “There’s ‘fiends, family and fun’ instead of ‘friends, family and fun’. That’s awful! That’s not even the company’s tagline --”   
  
“I’m glad _you_ find this amusing,” William muttered darkly as he continued to read. He had paid this absolute moron to make this. Company dime went to this monstrosity. That was money he’d never get back. God, he should sue this person just for incompetence.   
  
_‘Calm down,’_ he told himself. _‘That won’t help anything.’_   
  
Eric’s cackling didn’t help anything either, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t shut it down without looking completely callous and rude. William just grit his teeth and suffered through another one of his laughing fits.   
  
“And the pictures cover up some of the words, too ... I’m so sorry, uh, I’m sorry -- that’s what did it for me. That’s just, you know --”   
  
“Yes, yes.” William sighed and took another look. True to Eric’s word, some of the pictures of confetti and pizza covered up some of the words. Ingredients were blocked out, and even the title of the ‘five meet’ pizza was partially obscured.   
  
What a disaster.   
  
“Well,” William said. “I suppose I will have to pause, call my head designer, and ask them what the hell they were thinking with this.”   
  
Eric stifled another helpless giggle, by some miracle. He then cleared his throat. “Sounds like a good idea, Mr. Afton. That, uh ... I could do better, and I don’t even have training.”   
  
“Careful, or I might take you up on that offer.”   
  
Eric blushing again made that risky remark worth it. William chuckled good-naturedly, then took a chair and brought it over to the desk.   
  
“May I make a call?” he asked.   
  
“Oh, sure. O-Of course. Yeah.” He’d guess at Eric being embarrassed at how close together they were, considering the cramped nature of the office, but William couldn’t entertain that right now.   
  
He had someone to verbally rip apart. Poor grammar was never acceptable, especially not on something as important as a menu.  
  
... Even if it _was_ a bit funny.


End file.
